GuideStone’s award-winning mutual funds now available for church members

Posted: May 07, 2014

DALLAS — Individuals and institutions in our Southern Baptist and evangelical family interested in award-winning, values-driven investments can now invest with GuideStone Funds. The nation’s largest Christian-screened mutual fund family, GuideStone Funds, opened in 2001. Until today, the Funds were limited to pastors, missionaries and employees of Southern Baptist and evangelical churches and ministries, as well as their immediate family members. This expansion is the next important step in supporting GuideStone’s long-term growth and fulfilling its mission.

“So often, people wonder whether they have to choose the performance they hope to achieve for their investments or the values they strive to live out today,” said Rodric E. Cummins, senior vice president and chief investment officer of GuideStone Capital Management. “We believe that the many industry recognitions GuideStone Funds has received help give evidence that investors don’t have to compromise their values to obtain industry-leading performance."

GuideStone’s commitment to excellence and performance, coupled with a values-driven approach, has fueled award-winning success. Five of GuideStone’s 11 Select Funds currently have 4 or 5 star Morningstar ratings, as of March 31, 2014. In 2012, Lipper awarded GuideStone Funds its Best Overall Small Fund Group in the U.S. — the first Christian-screened fund family of its kind to receive this award. The 2012 award was for performance over the three-year period ending November 30, 2011, and ranked GuideStone No. 1 out of 182 eligible fund families with up to $40 billion in assets. In 2013, our MyDestination 2025 Fund was ranked No. 1 out of 92 similar funds for its performance over the three-year period ending November 30, 2012. Most recently, Lipper honored GuideStone’s Extended-Duration Bond Fund as the Best Fund Over 3 Years and the Best Fund Over 5 Years in the Corporate Debt A-Rated Funds category. In each category, which ended November 30, 2013, the Extended-Duration Bond Fund beat out more than 50 eligible funds.

Anchored in an approach that unites investment professionals and a proven research process with access to industry-recognized investment management firms, GuideStone Funds provides the nation’s largest family of Christian-screened mutual funds and diversified investment opportunities across all asset classes.

"We believe that the time is right to make these funds available to a wider Christian audience,” said Ron Dugan, chief strategic investment officer for GuideStone. “Having successfully weathered financial storms after September 2001, as well as the economic downturn of 2008–2009, we believe our funds are battle-tested and offer a good approach for values-based investors who want to invest in accordance with their values.

“Our commitment to our investors, whether they are the pastors we were founded to serve over nine decades ago, church members or financial advisors, is the same: to help them achieve their long-term goals,” Dugan said. “On each desk at GuideStone is a little sign that reminds us of our guiding vision as we seek to be a lifelong partner in enhancing the financial security of our participants. We will not waiver from that as we seek to work each day with integrity and skill on behalf of our investors.”

GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins echoed those sentiments.

“Each expansion GuideStone has undertaken helps provide additional economies of scale, allowing us to continue to provide quality services at competitive prices to our pastors and all participants,” Hawkins said. “Our core commitment — part of the very fabric of GuideStone Financial Resources — is to those pastors at the crossroads. Every time we consider an opportunity to grow, our first and foremost question remains whether we are able to do so while honoring the Lord in being those pastors’ lifelong partner in enhancing their financial security. We are convinced this step enhances our ability to partner with those participants.”

GuideStone Funds is a controlled affiliate of GuideStone Financial Resources, a 96-year-old entity of the Southern Baptist Convention. While originally founded as a relief organization, GuideStone has since transitioned into providing employer-sponsored retirement plans, life and health products and property and casualty coverage. The mutual fund family was launched in 2001 as a way to provide more investment opportunities for pastors, churches and other ministries. GuideStone launched the first Christian-based target-date fund lineup in 2006.

For more information about GuideStone Funds or to obtain a prospectus with important information on the funds, please call 1-888-GS-FUNDS (1-888-473-8637) or visit GuideStoneFunds.com.

You should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the GuideStone Funds before investing. A prospectus with this and other information about the Funds may be obtained by calling 1-888-GS-FUNDS (1-888-473-8637) or downloading one. It should be read carefully before investing.

GuideStone Funds and retail investment products are made available through GuideStone Financial Services, member FINRA.

For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund’s monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) As of March 31, 2014, GuideStone Funds Medium-Duration Bond Fund – GS4 had 4 stars out of 942 funds in the Intermediate-Term Bond category, GuideStone Funds Extended-Duration Bond Fund – GS4 had 5 stars out of 127 funds in the Corporate Bond category, GuideStone Funds Equity Index Fund – GS4 had 4 stars out of 1361 in the Large Blend category, GuideStone Funds Value Equity Fund – GS4 had 4 stars out of 1,068 funds in the Large Value category, and GuideStone Funds Global Bond Fund – GS4 had 4 stars out of 270 funds in the World Bond category.

About the 2012 Best Overall Small Company Award: Fund groups with at least three equity, three bond and three mixed-asset classes are eligible for a group award. The lowest average decile rank of the three years’ Consistent Return measure of the eligible funds per asset class and group will determine the award winner over the three-year period ended November 30, 2011. In cases of identical results, the lower average percentile rank will determine the winner. 182 firms were eligible for this award.

About the 2013 Mixed-Asset Target 2025 Funds Award (3 year): Classification averages are calculated with all eligible share classes for each eligible classification. The calculation periods extend over 36, 60 and 120 months. The highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value within each eligible classification determines the fund classification winner over three, five or ten years. The GuideStone MyDestination Fund 2025 – GS4 won for the three-year period ended November 30, 2012. 92 funds were eligible for this award.

About the 2014 Corporate Debt A-Rated Funds Award (3 year and 5 year): Classification averages are calculated with all eligible share classes for each eligible classification. The calculation periods extend over 36, 60 and 120 months. The highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value within each eligible classification determines the fund classification winner over three, five or ten years. The GuideStone Extended Duration Fund – GS2 won for the three-year and five-year periods ended November 30, 2013. 57 funds were eligible for the three-year award and 51 funds were eligible for the five-year award.

Small company stocks are generally riskier than large company stocks due to greater volatility and less liquidity.

Bond funds are subject to credit risk and interest rate risk. Interest rate risk means, when interest rates rise, the value of the existing bonds decrease and vice versa. Changes in interest rates have a bigger impact on long duration holdings than on short duration holdings.

The MyDestination Funds® (“Funds”) attempt to achieve their objectives by investing in the GuideStone Select Funds and other investments. The Funds are managed to a retirement date (“target date”) by adjusting the percentage of fixed income securities and equity securities to become more conservative each year until reaching the retirement year and then approximately 15 years thereafter. The target date in the name of the Funds is the approximate date when an investor plans to start withdrawing money. By investing in the Funds, you will also incur the expenses and risks of the underlying Select Funds and other investments. The principal risks of the Funds will change depending on the asset mix of the Select Funds in which they invest. You may directly invest in the Select Funds and other investments. The Funds’ value will go up and down in response to changes in the share prices of the investments that they own. The amount invested in the Fund is not guaranteed to increase, is not guaranteed against loss, nor is the amount of the original investment guaranteed at the target date. It is possible to lose money by investing in the Funds.